Siddhartha Chatterjee, head of Club Med‘s AI and data department and speaker at the Mastercard Innovation Forum on November 5, discusses how Club Med uses artificial intelligence, both internally and for its customers.
How has Club Med adapted to the rise of artificial intelligence? Has the company made any internal changes?
Siddhartha Chatterjee heads the AI and data department at Club Med. © Siddhartha Chatterjee
Internally, we have developed an “AI and data” department made up of around forty people. With the rise of artificial intelligence and in particular ChatGPT, we decided to change strategy. Before, we were “smart adopters”, that is to say we first observed our competitors before adopting a technology. Now, we are an “early adopter” and we have developed a process to quickly integrate an innovation linked to AI. This process follows several steps. Internally, a team asks if the company can develop a new use case. We make a audit to determine if this use case presents real added value. If this is the case, we check that it has business interest and we also check its technical feasibility. Then, a test phase called “pilot” takes place. If this test is conclusive, we deploy the innovation relying on GPT, Claude or Anthropic.
Can you give an example of an AI-related innovation that Club Med has developed?
We collaborated with the start-up AlloBrain to deploy a chatbot called GM Copilot. This chatbot allows our customers to search for information about a product. For example, they can ask him to send photos of a room in Punta Cana. We first deployed this chatbot at the beginning of 2024 in Brazil via integration on WhatsApp. However, we had a small reservation before launching this innovation: can a luxury brand like Club Med offer its customers the opportunity to converse with an AI? I think so, provided the client can request to speak with a human. Obviously, they always have this possibility.
Will this chatbot soon be deployed in France?
Brazil was a bit of a test market. The chatbot processed 18,000 conversations. He was able to respond to 45% of our customers’ requests. For other requests, he referred the customer to a human advisor. The experience was very successful, so much so that we launched the chatbot in Singapore, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. In 2025, the goal is to deploy it in our 25 markets, including France. Our French customers will be able to chat with our chatbot on WhatsApp.
Internally, is AI used by the different Club Med teams?
This year, we carried out a three-day hackathon with Microsoft which resulted in several innovations. We configured a writing assistant to write marketing content via GPT. This assistant is already deployed internally. Two other innovations are expected to be launched in 2025. The first concerns the use of artificial intelligence to analyze news about food products which represent big expenses for us. This allows our buyers to better understand pricing trends and better negotiate food purchases. Finally, AI should also be used to automate the assignment of entertainers to the appropriate resorts according to their experience and skills.
